The Search for Shirley
by Beth6
Summary: Draco Malfoy is a boy who bangs goblets. He is devoted to one goblet, named Shirley. However, one day, Shirley dissapears. How will Draco survive without her?
1. The Common Room

The Search For Shirley
    
    _A/N:  A HUGE thank you goes out to Zequist, Athena, and Lizzie for being my betas!  You guys rock!   The origin of this ship is from a simple quote in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (page 305) that says "__Harry could see Draco Malfoy banging his goblet on the table. It was a sickening sight."  All credit for creating the ship goes to Athena.  She's the greatest!_

_Disclaimer:  Everything you recognize belongs to JKR.  Everything else belongs to me.  'Nuff said._

Harry Potter arose early on Saturday morning.  He had a Quidditch match against Hufflepuff that afternoon, and had lost sleep the night before due to his nervousness. Their new Seeker, a second year named Mark Walters, was no match for Harry, but the rush that an upcoming game gave him caused him to toss and turn all night.  After lying awake for ten minutes, Harry gave up on the possibility of going back to sleep, and rose from his bed.  He discovered that Ron was still sound asleep in the next bed over, and decided not to wake him.  Ron needed his energy for the game, as it was his first year playing as Gryffindor's Keeper.  Harry decided to go to the Great Hall alone and eat something for breakfast.  He hoped a bit of food in his stomach might help to calm his pre-game nerves. 

The Great Hall was relatively empty.  Colin Creevey and a few of his friends sat at the Gryffindor table, and Dennis seemed to be tagging along with his older brother.  Colin did nothing to stop him, and Harry pondered how they could stand each other.  Most siblings would push their younger brothers away if their friends were present.  Perhaps, Harry reasoned, Colin and Dennis were equally annoying, and therefore unaffected by each other.  A few Ravenclaw first-years were giggling at their table and Mark Walters sat at the Hufflepuff table with two friends, both of whom played Quidditch as well.  Harry was relieved to see that he wasn't the only athlete nervous about the upcoming game_.  _

Draco Malfoy sat all alone at the Slytherin table, and appeared to be engaged in a deep conversation with his goblet.  This was not unusual behaviour for Draco.  As Harry and several other students had noticed, he had taken a liking to his goblet in the past few weeks.  Harry sighed and sat down at the Gryffindor table, as far away from the Creevey brothers and their obnoxious friends as possible.  However wise Harry's seating choice may have seemed, it ultimately proved to be a most unfortunate mistake.  He had chosen a seat directly across the Great Hall from Draco Malfoy, with no one else sitting at any of the tables between them.  Harry could hear Draco's one-sided conversation a bit too clearly. 

"Oh, Shirley, you are the most wonderful Goblet in the entire school.  No Goblet could ever live up to your magnificence." 

The goblet stared blankly back at Draco.  He had always been a somewhat disturbed student, but only recently had he begun banging his goblet on the tables in the Great Hall.  

"Today, My Precious, we will find the Common Room empty.  I can bang you on every table there!  The time will be most endless…"

Harry suddenly felt quite nauseous.  Leaving his toast and porridge nearly untouched, he headed back up to the Gryffindor Common Room, trying to erase the conversation he had just overheard from his mind.

***

A feeling of excitement was in the air.  A Quidditch match was scheduled that afternoon, and the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were full of House spirit.  Draco, on the other hand, was disgusted.  _I'll skip the Quidditch match, he decided.  __My Goblet and I have better things to do. _

"Accio Goblet!" Draco cried.  He was feeling particularly antsy this afternoon.  The Goblet did not come.  Draco concentrated on the Great Hall.  "Accio Shirley!" he tried again.  It would be a shame if he were forced to retrieve Shirley the Muggle way.  At last, Draco sighed and stood up.  He left the Slytherin common room in search of his goblet, or any goblet, for that matter.

The hallways were eerily empty, as the Ravenclaws and Slytherins were all attending the game as well.  The atmosphere of a Quidditch match was always pleasant, even if the viewer was not concerned with the outcome.  

But Malfoy had better things to do with his Saturday afternoon. 

He approached the Great Hall and began to search for Shirley, his wonderful, sparkling silver Goblet.  She was nowhere to be found.  Feeling desperate, Draco picked up an arbitrary Goblet and stuck it in the pocket of his pants.  He proceeded to the empty Slytherin common room, where he placed the Goblet on a table.

"Hello, Love," Draco said, stroking the rim of the Goblet affectionately.  He showered it with very one-sided kisses.  "Oh! Gobby!  How do you do it?"  Soon, Draco placed the goblet on the table and began banging it.

Much later, Draco realized what he was doing and decided it would be best to begin getting himself together.  With Potter playing, the Quidditch match was sure to be over soon, and he didn't want the rest of Slytherin house entering the common room with him in this condition.  A sudden burst of anger took over Draco.  "You just aren't the same!" Draco cried, as he chucked the Goblet out the window.  He turned away as it soared onto the Quidditch pitch.    


	2. Quidditch

It was the perfect day for a Quidditch match.  A soft breeze blew Harry Potter's hair, making it messier than normal, if that was possible.  It felt good to fly, Harry mused.  Quidditch competitions were normally stressful, but Harry was lighthearted today.  He supposed that he had left his nervousness back on the ground.  

Harry pulled into a steep dive, ignoring the rest of the game except to avoid being hit by bludgers and other athletes.  He pulled out just a few feet away from the ground, hoping Walters had followed him.  Harry quite selfishly enjoyed tricking other seekers, although Cho and Draco were now well aware of this.   Neither of them seemed to follow his stunts anymore.  Mark, however, was fresh blood, a new seeker for Harry to provoke.  Harry didn't really want to seriously hurt Mark; he didn't have the heart to do that.  Rather, he wanted him to break a few bones—nothing Madam Pomfrey couldn't mend in a few minutes.  

Mark had followed Harry into the dive, but from a completely different angle, where it was not as difficult.  He pulled out of the dive long before Harry, realizing that the Snitch was not in sight.  The dive was good practice for Mark, so he wasn't bothered by Harry's antics.  If he caught the Snitch, he knew he would be a legend in Hufflepuff.  Only Cedric Diggory had ever beaten Harry Potter, and everyone but Amos knew that it wasn't because Cedric was the better Seeker.

Harry returned to his usual routine of circling the Quidditch pitch.  His eyes sought the Snitch, but it was still nowhere to be found.  He took his attention off the Snitch for a moment to check the score.  Harry was growing impatient—the snitch hadn't been sighted the entirety of the game.  Gryffindor was in the lead—50 to 10.  Then he saw it.  A glint of gold seemed to be falling near the out of bounds line.  Harry dove.  _It's just like the Rememberall_, Harry told himself.   _It's falling like a normal object.  _This was strange behavior for the Snitch, but Harry thought nothing of it.  He reached out his hand and caught—

—A goblet.

It was covered in…in…_was that what it looked like?  Eurgh, it __was.  Disgusted, Harry threw the goblet back towards the castle and began wiping his now sticky hand on his pant leg, trying desperately to get the stuff off.  Suddenly he heard an uproar from the crowd.  During Harry's confusion, Mark Walters had caught the Snitch.  Harry's distraction had lost Gryffindor the game.  _

***

Harry was not alone in his misery and disappointment that day.  Draco Malfoy was also going through a phase of depression.   Draco's One True Love, his precious Shirley, had disappeared.  It was the longest they had been apart since the day she came into his life. There was a strong ache inside his heart.  Something was amiss in his life, and he knew exactly what it was.  Draco needed Shirley back, but he did not know where to find her.

Draco pondered why Shirley would leave him.  He thought the relationship had been mutual.  Didn't Shirley feel the same way about Draco?  Wasn't he good enough for her?  How many other men would want Shirley?  It pained Draco to picture Shirley with another guy. 

Relationships with other goblets had not fulfilled Draco's desires.  Shirley was the only goblet Draco could ever dream about, could ever think about.  He fixed a picture of Shirley to the inside cover of each of his textbooks.  It was what sustained him during those long and lonely days.  

Draco spent every spare moment searching for Shirley.  She was different from the other goblets.  They were plain, tarnished silver, but she was magically sparkling with gold.  He could see part of himself in Shirley, and that made her special.  He could stare for hours at her metal, especially the way it shone in the firelight when they lay together on the Slytherin common room floor. .  Shirley also had Draco's last initial engraved on the base of the goblet, as token, or so he though at the time, of their eternal bond. Every time something silver caught Draco's eye his hopes rose, and he would check eagerly to see if it was Shirley.

While walking from transfiguration to Divination the rainy Tuesday after the Quidditch match, Draco saw something gold sparkling in the corridor.  His heart lurched.  Shirley.  He knew it had to be her.  Instead of the smooth, gold metal of Shirley, he was left with a broken watch.  Draco threw the watch back where he had found it.  His father could buy him twenty of a better model if that was what he desired.  

Back in Draco's dormitory that evening, feeling grim after yet another disappointment, his impatience finally got the better of him."  _Why must I search for Shirley myself?  If I were home, Father would have someone else do it! Draco thought.  __This search is ridiculous…I shouldn't have to do it by myself._

Draco turned to Professor Snape for help in searching for Shirley.  "I've had it since I was a baby," Draco explained to the professor after Potions class on Wednesday.  "It once belonged to my great grandfather, and it has been passed from generation to generation of Malfoys.  It is a very special goblet."  It was all a lie, of course, but Draco's story seemed to soften the Potions master.  

Snape recommended that Draco post notices around Hogwarts, and even said that Draco could have students turn the goblet into his office if he found it.  

That day, Draco designed a notice and made numerous copies of it.  In a matter of hours, he placed the flyers all over the school, showing the picture of Shirley and a description in case she decided to hide.   In large print, under the picture, it read:

Goblet missing!  Silver goblet, shiny, with initial M engraved at the base.  If found, please return the goblet to Professor Snape's office or to Draco Malfoy.  Thank you.

Little did Draco know that the rest of the school would find this an amusing joke.

On Thursday, Draco visited Professor Snape to see if anyone had turned in a goblet.  Snape handed Draco a large box overfilled with goblets of every color and size.  "I don't see why you continue to search for this goblet of yours," Snape told Draco.  "Why can't you just buy a new one?"

Draco didn't object to the comment, or reply.  What he did with his goblet was his business and his business alone.  "Thank you for doing this, Professor Snape."  With that, Draco took the box of goblets to his dormitory, hoping Shirley was buried within the contents of the box.


End file.
